Youth had BB gun outside Lincoln school in South Bend

Administrator called police, who took nonstudent home.

Administrator called police, who took nonstudent home.

SOUTH BEND -- A school administrator at Lincoln Primary Center called the police on Friday afternoon after encountering a juvenile male, who may have had a gun, in the parking lot. The school is in the 1400 block of East Calvert. Judy Tovey, a spokeswoman for the South Bend Community School Corp., said Tuesday that the incident occurred between 4:30 and 5 p.m., well after school had been dismissed for the day. The administrator had noticed juveniles running and riding bikes between cars in the parking lot and then went outside to ask them to leave, Tovey said. The juveniles were not students at Lincoln, Tovey said. According to an incident report filed internally through the school corporation, one of the juveniles approached the administrator on a bicycle and what appeared to be a gun fell out of his pocket. Tovey said the administrator went back inside and called the South Bend police, who then responded. A chase ensued, Tovey said, and the police did not report back to the school. Police records show that officers were dispatched to the school to locate suspects who may have been armed, but no official police report was made, which would have been on the public log. After officers found the juvenile suspect in the 1600 block of East Calvert, a BB gun was retrieved, records show, and the officer took the juvenile home and spoke to his father. Records did not specify the young man's age. A police spokesman, Capt. John Williams, said on Tuesday that it's up to the "officer's discretion" whether to take the youth to the Juvenile Justice Center or whether to file a report. In this case, the officer decided to drive the young man home and speak to a parent, confident that the boy's father "would take care of it," records show. "It's a judgment call," Williams said.